Gartner: Android takes top smartphone OS spot

While Nokia still tops manufacturers

Gartner has released its report into mobile phone sales for Q2 2011, revealing that Android is now the top selling OS.

The results show that the Google-made OS increased its market share to 43 per cent from 17 per cent last year, while Apple hit 18 per cent – not bad considering the sheer volume of Android handsets compared to iOS phones.

Nokia also managed to cling on to the top manufacturing spot, although its share has fallen to 22 per cent of the market thanks to sales of 97.87 million smartphones in the three months from April to June.

Top of the pops

Gartner notes that the Finnish company has managed to "reduce levels of held stock, partly by cutting prices on older products", a tactic that has helped it keep the top spot.

It's bad news for RIM and Windows Phone though; RIM saw its smartphone share drop by 7 per cent year on year, while Microsoft and its Windows Phone platform garnered only 1.6 per cent of the OS market – less, even, than Samsung's Bada OS. Ouch.

Overall sales of mobile devices grew by 16.5 per cent compared to the same quarter in 2010, with smartphone sales up by 74 per cent.